The traffic light cycled to green, the first car started to roll, then both finally moved quickly out of the way.
Matt made the corner just in time to see the tail of the minivan going up an on-ramp, headed southbound on the Delaware Expressway.
He pulled on the gear-selector stalk on the steering column, dumping the transmission into second gear, then floored the accelerator.
Just before the ramp at the next block, with the high-revving engine roaring, Matt tapped the brakes once before turning, then put the Police Interceptor into a squealing right turn. He corrected the skid, then floored the accelerator again and bumped the transmission into high gear.
This section of Interstate 95 was four lanes in each direction, and Matt saw that the minivan was weaving through the heavy traffic.
Sonofabitch is using all the lanes!
The other vehicles were quickly becoming aware of the reckless minivan. Just past the point where the expressway became elevated, some began moving out of the wild driver’s way. Matt figured that the driver of a full-size Dodge SUV must have seen the Ford minivan flying up on its tail. It tried to move quickly into the lane to its left-and immediately sideswiped the Honda Accord that was traveling in that lane.
Oh, shit!
The impact from the heavier truck forced the lighter compact car into the far inside lane, which fortunately was unoccupied.
That Honda was damn lucky it didn’t slam into the concrete divider.
Or completely lose control.
The Ford minivan, apparently anticipating the Dodge SUV swerving back into its lane, then darted through a gap in the right lane. It flew past a half-dozen vehicles before again having to brake heavily, this time almost at the Vine Street Expressway.
After checking the nearby lanes for traffic, Matt calmly steered to follow it.
I wonder how many violations I’ve made so far of our department’s pursuit policies.
Plenty, I’m sure.
And I’m also sure someone will be more than happy to point them out as we review the video of it in the ECC.
His cell phone began ringing, and he dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. Payne was amazed the earbud was still in his ear. When he answered the call, he wondered if all Harris would hear would be his siren wails and horn honks.
“Tony, how’s Charley? All okay?”
“He’s fine. We’ve got the scene under control. Where the hell are you?”
“Southbound Delaware Expressway, about to Vine. Hot on the tail of the white minivan. You want to call in for units to try to head off this guy? He’s running hard, and about to make a big mess out here.”
Payne, closing the distance between them, watched the Ford minivan make jerky movements as the driver tried getting around four vehicles that were driving abreast and effectively forming a wall across the expressway. They did try to get out of the way, but every time a driver anticipated the minivan’s next move, another driver wound up blocking him again.
The minivan was in the far right lane, and when it came up to the two-lane split leading to the exit for the Vine Street Expressway, it shot the gap and accelerated.
“Tony, he just took the Vine exit. Hell, we’re almost to the Roundhouse, about a quarter-mile out. Maybe he’s going there to give himself up.”
He heard Harris snort, then start relaying that updated information.
Payne made the exit for the Vine Street Expressway, and as the two lanes of the elevated concrete thoroughfare widened to four, Matt looked in the distance and saw the minivan heading toward the Center City skyline.
Also ahead, at the point where the expressway crossed over Fourth Street, there was a series of flashing caution lights and signage that read: CAUTION! ROAD REPAIR AHEAD! YO, GIVE US A BRAKE!
The minivan was now just passing the first of the flashing lights.
The lights and signs became thicker as the expressway approached the Fifth Street overpass, and Payne remembered that that was where two eighteen-wheelers had collided a few weeks earlier. The mass of them together had taken out five sections of the three-foot-tall concrete divider that separated the eastbound and westbound lanes.
As a temporary patch, a double line of fifty-five-gallon drums, orange with reflective tape, had been put in place with more caution signage. And a temporary speed-limit sign had been posted.
Matt saw ahead of the Ford minivan that traffic in all the westbound lanes was slowing to a stop just past the construction crew.
“Looks like the Vine Expressway is shut down, Tony.”
The minivan was beginning to make jerky moves from lane to lane, looking for a route around the slow traffic.
Matt moved into the far outside lane behind the minivan and eased up on the accelerator as he closed the distance between them.
No exit here. Nowhere to run.
Looks like the end of the road.
But then he saw that not only was the minivan not slowing to the posted twenty-five miles an hour, it was accelerating.
And then it suddenly shot from the right lane and across the other three-then went right through the orange barrels, scattering them and causing the construction workers to dive for cover.
“Jesus H. Christ!”
“What, Matt?”
“He just crossed into the oncoming lanes.”
“How the hell did he do that?”
“He blew through a hole in the construction zone.”
More important, how the hell did he miss those oncoming cars?
At least they’re driving slow because of the roadwork.
The minivan then drove to the far left of the expressway and turned left onto a lane that was carrying oncoming traffic coming off the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The vehicles swerved to miss hitting the minivan head- on.
“Jesus! And now he’s headed the wrong way toward the Ben Franklin Bridge!”
Payne, with his hands on the steering wheel at three and nine o’clock, looked over his left shoulder, then cut across the westbound lanes of the expressway, stopping in the hole that the minivan had plowed through the rows of orange drums. Then he checked for a gap in the eastbound traffic. There wasn’t one immediately, but as he waited, one driver, then two and three and more, began to heed the siren and red-and-blue strobes, either slowing to a crawl or coming to a complete stop.
Jesus! Here we go!
Payne put his right foot to the floor, and the Crown Vic burned rubber as it shot forward.
The minivan had momentarily disappeared around the curves of the turns leading up to the bridge. But its tail came back into view as soon as Payne reached the first overhead gantry.
The five vehicles that had just crashed also came into view.
Payne steered around them and headed for the bridge.
The eighty-year-old steel suspension bridge spanned the Delaware River, connecting Center City to Camden, New Jersey. It had a total of seven lanes for automotive traffic. Separating the east- and westbound lanes was an articulated concrete wall called a “zipper” barrier. Depending on traffic demand, the three-foot-tall zipper could be moved to create more or fewer lanes in either direction.
Payne saw that the zipper had been positioned so that there were four lanes westbound.
Which gives me more room.
The minivan was going right down the center white-dotted lines, the oncoming cars parting to either side.
